Johnny Mercyside

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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Hey everyone, once in a while I'll do these lazy posts where I'll talk about myself rather than about music or games or whatever. These questions are from my Formspring account, which you can find here if you want to follow me. Here are twenty questions and answers for you that I answered some time ago (although if the answer is different from when I was asked at the time, I'll amend it here).

Q: If you had to cook dinner for someone tonight, what would you make?

A: Probably a pasta bake, I'm not a good cook but I can make that meal.

Q: What's the most unselfish thing you've ever done?

A: I don't really know, I don't go incredibly out of my way to help someone, that's not to say I'm selfish, but nothing stands out as really unselfish. I do small things to many people to help them.

Q: Do you have any scars on your body? If so, how'd you get them?

A: I have a few small scars but the one big scar I have is on my wrist, when my good friend Matt and I were playing wrestling next to a window in high school. He pretended to throw me into the window but I actually went wrist first into the window and have a weird insect shaped slit down my wrist, thats about 3 inches long.

Q: What was the worst movie you've ever seen? From start to finish?

A: Probably Cabin Fever. It was just dire, in my opinion. No shocks, crap gore, crap storyline, awful ending, stereotypical characters, lazy film making. Yet it was a minor success.

Q: Would you rather work at a large company or a small one?

A: There are pros and cons to both, and as stupid as it is, I don't really care as long as they pay well. I hate saying it but it's too important to get good money over job satisfaction in this financial climate.

Q: What's the longest you've ever gone without a bath or shower?

A: Probably a week or something. I think I went a week when we had no hot water, not sure.

Q: If you had your own talk show, who would your first three guests be?

A: It's quite difficult to talk about it, but most of the time I think not.

Q: What do you think was the greatest invention in your lifetime?

A: The evolution of video games.

Q: If you could look like anybody, who would it be?

A: I'm not really sure, I dont really aspire to look like anyone in particular. Of course I'd like to look different, but not like someone in particular.

Q: What was the best concert you went to?

A: I have a joint favourite, seeing Nine Inch Nails the first time, and seeing Muse in Dublin. I cant possibly choose between them, but they were both epic.

Q: What's the origin of your name?

A: My first name? Well my father and my grandfather are both called John, so you could argue I'm John III.

My surname is more complex. This is actually my third surname. My birth name was John Geary, and my father decided to look into the roots of the Geary family crest and found out that the Geary's were actually the O'Gara's, and the O'Gara family crest roots back to a surname called O'Gadhra. I and the rest of my family left my dad seven years ago, and I'm currently using my mothers maiden name, which is Harper. I hope not to change my surname again.

Q: What did you eat for breakfast today?

A: I only really have breakfast on the weekend, I usually get up and go straight to work on a weekday. On a weekend I usually have bacon and egg butties. They're the best.

Q: Do you believe there's intelligent life on other planets?

A: Maybe very very far away there is intelligent life on it, but it's probably too far away for us to track down in some time. There are almost infinite different type of chemical and atomic reactions that there's bound to be something with the right things in the right place elsewhere in the universe. It can't just be here, in such a vast amount of space.

Q: Where would you like to spend your retirement?

A: I don't really know, it's at least 40 years away, I don't know what type of person I'll be then. Would I still like playing video games?

Q: Do you believe in fate?

A: It depends what mood I'm in. When I'm being realistic I don't, but if something very weird happens then I have a more open minded view to the idea.

Q: What's your earliest memory?

A: I remember being in bed with my mum and dad when I was very very young. Properly however, I remember my dad breaking his vinyls and shouting at me when I kept playing with them.

Q: If you could change your name, what would you change it to?

A: I can change my name to whatever I want to. If I wanted to, I would, I've done it enough times.

Q: If you could rid the world of one thing, what would it be?

A: Money. Money is the worst thing around at the moment, it ruins everything. We should go back to old fashion trading, a lot of different parts of the world resource efficiently in many important materials. We can trade fairly without money.

And there you go. A little insight to what type of person I am and my views on things. Just in case you missed it earlier you can follow me and ask me questions on my Formspring here.

I'll be back on Tuesday to start a new monthly series. You saw me cover the Naughties in music for the past six months. I found the whole thing to be a great experience yet it took way too long. So I've decided to start going backwards even further, into the nineties. So I'm starting with 1999, and it'll just be a one day one article quick review of my thoughts on the year 1999, unbiased and biased. I hope you'll enjoy this dramatically shorter version of what we just went through for six months. I'm hoping as I said to do one year every month, so naturally the start of September I'll do the same format but for the year 1998. Have a good night.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Tekken 6 is a
great game. It truly is. But it could have been so much more.

Tekken 6 as the name suggests, is the sixth instalment into
Namco’s core fighting game. Tekken back in the mid nineties quickly established
itself as the new king of beat-em-ups. Tekken 1 was at the time one of the
first ever 3D beat-em-ups, then Tekken 2 took the series to a new level. But
Tekken 3 was the game that everyone wanted to play, and everyone HAD to play.
It was the definitive beat-em-up of the nineties, the graphics were gorgeous,
and there were so many characters with completely unique movesets and combos it
was unbelievable. Tekken 3 raised the bar in the fighting game genre and rarely
has a game in the genre created the impact that the third instalment did.

Tekken 4 was a major step back in the series, many (and me
included) believed they changed too much too quickly in the series and tried to
force storylines down the players throat rather than it being a stand alone
arcade game. Tekken 5 brought some great arcade gameplay back into the series
whilst using Tekken 4’s storyline formula. Which brings us to Tekken 6, the
first game in the series to be on the new generation of consoles, with a
release on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. So how does this game fare against previous
instalments?

Well the first thing I noticed when playing this game for
the time is the graphics. Namco have always put emphasis on the quality of the
graphics in the Tekken series, and while Tekken 3 has some of the best graphics
on the original Playstation, Tekken 6 easily can be put up on the wall as a
beautifully textured game that both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation
3 should be proud to have on their consoles. The characters look fantastic, the
men are really beefed up to look like superheroes where as many of the women
just look beautiful. The facial expressions are also fantastic, and the
executions of the moves look painful, as they should. The backgrounds look
better than ever, and with the new potential breaks and expansion in terrain to new areas
(blatantly yet universally accepted theft from the Dead or Alive series) the
game plays better and looks better than ever. The cracks that appear in the
floor when characters hit it look fantastic as well. The game really puts over
that these physical beings are colossus's colliding and their super powers are
not to be messed with. It really makes you feel that bit cooler when you do
these awesome moves.

There are easier ways for a girl to show a man her ass but each to their own.

Now if you’ve played Tekken in the past then the controls
are almost identical to previous games in the series. Y and X (or triangle and
square on the PS3) control your hands and B and A (or circle and cross on the
PS3) control you feet. So through your buttons, you can control the four limbs
on your body. You can move with the D-pad; left and right moves your character
forward and backwards on the fighting terrain, where as pressing up and down
makes you jump and crouch respectively. There are other more complicated
movements you can make like pressing up or down twice in quick succession makes
you side step, pressing left or right twice quickly makes you take a large step
backwards or forwards respectively. Learning the controls of Tekken quickly,
learning how to do combos and timing are all key to becoming a good fighter.
The controls, as they always have been, are great and there’s not much else to
say other than that!

I touched on it earlier, but Tekken has so many characters,
all with vastly different movesets. In Tekken 6, there are 41 playable
characters in total; the most of any Tekken game so far, and in these 41 are 7
new characters to the game. So that all being said, with all these characters
and all these different martial arts and playing styles, it’s safe to say
you’ll be able to find a character that suits you just fine. There are quick
and nimble characters like Ling Xiaoyu and Lili, there are big, strong
characters like Bob and Jack-6, and there’s characters in the middle like Lars
and Jin. The choice is immense, and kudos to Namco for expanding on an already
elite set of fighters. If you were new to the game, I’d thoroughly advise you
check out the Practise Mode option and here you can learn all about these
characters on a time-scale more suited to yourself.

Speaking of playing modes, the usual is available other than
Practise Mode, there’s Survival Mode, which puts you against AI character after
character on the single bar of health you have (with small replenishments after
each bout) until you get KO’d. There’s also the ever-great Team Battle Mode,
which you can choose up to eight combatants to go against, either two player
VS, or against the computer. The Team Battle mode has always been one of my
favourite modes, and Tekken 6’s version is exactly the same as previous
incarnations. But the highlight of the game modes in Tekken 6 is the all-new
and exclusive game mode called Scenario Campaign. This mode brings forth the
introduction and story to two of these new characters, Lars Alexandersson and
Alisa Bosconovich, a human and a robot respectively, who fight together against
both the two main war functions in the game, the Mishima Zaibatsu and the G
Corporation. Lars, who has lost his memory, joins forces with Alisa just as the
war between the two forces start and they depend on each other for survival.
Lars is connected to the war in some way and as you progress, you find out his
involvement to the plot and eventually come across the final boss of the game,
Azazel. The Scenario Campaign is a fun little addition to Tekken 6 that plays
the Tekken arcade fighter in a 3D, multi-angled action game.

The Arcade mode of the old instalments is another mode that
you can play. However, unlike the old games, beating Arcade mode in Tekken 6
doesn’t get you an ending for the character you have chosen to play as. To get
the endings for each character, you have to unlock a new mode that’s inside of
the Scenario Campaign called the “Arena”, and any character that you come
across in the bulk of the Scenario Campaign, you can play as in the “Arena” and
complete it, giving you their Tekken 6 ending. The Arena mode is like a mini
Arcade mode with 4 levels instead of the 8 or 10 that you were used to in the
previous games. This gives you quick access to the endings, while still keeping
you interested in the Scenario Campaign, to unlock the other characters. This cleverly
disguised access to the endings is welcome by me, as it makes you really care
about the Scenario Campaign so you can view the other endings.

Who knows what move Panda was thinking of executing.

You can also customise your characters appearances by either
unlocking items whilst playing Scenario Campaign mode, or by collecting money
in many different ways in the game, and spending them on unlockable items on
the “Customise” option in the Options menu. The possibilities are endless with
regards to how you can change the appearance of your characters, and there’s
some nice references to other games and media, like making Marshall Law look
like Bruce Lee, and so on.

I’ve been very positive in my review of Tekken 6 but in
complete honesty, I find this game to be disappointing. I’m a huge Tekken fan
and have been for a good 13 years, and this title has many flaws, which I will
go through now. The Scenario Campaign, while is a fun and entertaining addition
to the game, is nothing more than another additional mode to Tekken 6. Yet all
the emphasis is on this new addition, all the characters have to be unlocked
through it, the easiest way to gain money is by playing it. It’s the top option
on the menu as well. As I said, I like the Scenario Campaign, but when I bought
my copy of Tekken 6, I didn’t buy it for the Scenario Campaign, I bought it to
play an arcade style fighting game. Tekken 6 is a side-to-side beat-em-up and
anything else that they add is secondary, is a bonus. The emphasis should not
be on the new additional mode, but the reason why we are on the sixth
instalment in the first place, the fantastic feeling of fighting 1 on 1 against
someone else in a game. Also, the Scenario Campaign has an option for
multiplayer, so you can control either Lars or Alisha, and someone else around
the world can play the opposite person. This sounds great, however there is no
offline 2-player option to do this with a friend on your couch next to you.
That comes across as a bit odd to me?

Maybe it’s just me, but another flaw in this game is the
music. While the sound of limbs hitting the body sounds fantastic, the
characters pain sounds and the falling and crashing noises when characters hit
the mat are all very realistic, I can’t help but complain about the music in
the game. None of the songs stand out;
in fact I find them to be a bit distracting some of the time. It’s all metal
(which is my favourite genre of music) but it’s very loud, very prominent, and
detracts from the gameplay, which to me is a bad note. I said that the noises
the characters make when they are being hit or are hitting are good but my
goodness, there’s a major lack of logic in Scenario Campaign when an American
speaks to a Japanese fighter and they have conversations in their own
languages. They completely understand each other to. I mean what’s up with
that? This lack of logic for me hurts the game as well. They should just have
all the characters speak English, but emphasise on the Japanese, Latin and
other characters having the relevant accents. That way we all win.

Ever since online gameplay has been a reliable source, I’ve
always thought that playing a Tekken game would be absolutely brilliant. The
thought of playing thousands and thousands of good Tekken players online was
one of the main reasons I had to get my hands on this game in the first place.
And while the aura of doing this is a great experience, Namco have hashed it up
pretty badly unfortunately. The main issue is the loading times. I mean the
loading times in Tekken 6 are poor in general anyway, but by the time you’ve
started to boot up the game until the moment you start your online bout,
chances are a good five or ten minutes have gone passed. While Namco have
respectably given you an indication on the connectability of each person you
are about to battle (and the option to skip them if they are of bad
connection), the game sometimes has to synch mid fight, which is off putting.
There’s also no choices to do anything but go offline or go back to Character
Select after each bout; it’d be nice if they gave you the option to have a rematch
(providing your opposition agrees), something I’d think about if I had a close
fight with someone. But the thing that annoys me the most, and this may be a
personal peeve, but I can’t believe there’s no Team Battle mode online. That
for me, well and truly sucks. There’s nothing more I want to do than to take my
favourite eight characters and put them up against someone else’s favourite
eight. The lack of this option well and truly upset me and I doubt I’m the only
one who feels this way.

The customisable options are much better. Although surely you can find a better outfit than this.

To sum it up, Tekken 6 is a wonderful game, with many flaws.
I’ve given you in this review the very good and the very bad about this game.
The pros are the same old pros that are associated with this great series of
fighting games, that it simply, gives you a beat-em-up experience that is
unparalleled with other fighting games. The extremely varied roster, the
mouth-watering graphics are just as far as I’m concerned, undisputed. But the
flaws are that the online mode is poor in comparison to its potential, the
music is just noise in front of the action, and that while Scenario Campaign is
an entertaining ride, it’s wrong that it’s almost advertised as the main
attraction, where as it’s the ‘bit on the side’ of a great arcade fighting
game. Tekken 6 is a great game. It truly is, but it could have been so much
more.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

I haven’t written as much about football as I’d have liked
to. The last article I wrote in fact was on my account on The Kop, (to avoid
interruption with the Noughtie series) which you can find here. On this actual site my last football activity was part of my quick Bitesize
update a few days before the new year. While I thoroughly enjoyed my Noughtie
series the whole thing took me out of action for six months in terms of writing
about other things. I mean, that’s a block that I made for myself, but I wanted
to be committed to the music series that I was doing and doing random posts in
between that project would have made my website a bit of a mess. So, here’s my
first publically documented writing on football in around six months!
Groundbreaking! Okay, enough sarcasm, let’s just get to the article.

I want to talk about the transfer window today, naturally.
We’re around halfway through the transfer season now, and around this time of
the window we tend to have little activity happen. You’ll see a signing here,
and a signing there, but it doesn’t really build up until the second week in
August time. But Liverpool hasn’t gone around their business in that fashion
this time. In fact, according to King Kenny (who, as I haven’t written about his tenure on my site, has done a tremendous job back at the club where he belongs
eternally) we’ve done most if not all our transfers already, as we have to sell
to buy if we are going to get any more players.

We’ve reportedly spent around £50 million on four players in
the past month or so, which is an incredible statistic when you round that up
to on average £12.5 million per player. The four signings are intriguing in
different ways. Here's a small bio on each of them.

Jordan Henderson

Sunderland born Henderson is only 21 years of age, and has
been described by his previous manage Steve Bruce as “the best young British
footballer there is”. Coming from Sunderland’s youth system. his career is
quite young, and has only really started to gain major recognition in the past
season. He can play on the right hand side of midfield, but has played
centrally more often than not. He’s took the #14 number off Milan Jovanovic,
which was also Xabi Alonso’s old jersey number. He doesn’t score too many goals
as of yet, in fact he’s only scored 6 goals so far in 92 professional
appearances (for Sunderland and Coventry) but he’s improving his trade, and he
does contribute to a decent amount of assists. His progress so far has been at
a decent pace and should be playing some games next season, whether or not he
can become a regular player for us or not, will have to be seen. There is a lot
of competition in the centre of the pitch, and he may find himself on the right
more often that he may like, due to his versatility. He won the Young Player of
the Year award for the two previous seasons for Sunderland, and also won his
first England cap, where he played alongside our own Stevie G. To add to his
obvious potential, FIFA placed him down on their list of “13 Young Players to
Watch in 2011” alongside Manchester United’s new keeper David De Gea and
Anderlecht’s highly rated Romelu Lukaku, calling him "composed, athletic
and powerful".

Charlie Adam

Charlie Adam was named after his father Charles Adam, who
played for many Scottish teams in the eighties and nineties. He is a Dundee
United youth, but spend the majority of his career at Rangers, six years of it
in total. Adam is another central midfielder however, unlike Henderson above,
Adam has a knack of finding the net, having done so a total of 63 times in 237
games in total, which is roughly one in four games. A lot of these goals have
come from penalties, as Adam is an extremely clinical penalty taker, rivalling
Gerrard and Kuyt for the spot takers next season. Like a lot of Rangers
players, Adam spent a lot of time on loan I his career, finding mosts of his
early success winning the Scottish Challenge Cup and First Division title with
St. Mirren back in 2006. After finishing his loan at St. Mirren he started scored
a hat-trick in a pre-season friendly, which helped him start to become a
regular at Rangers. He scored 14 goals that season, which lead him to being
crowned Young Player of the Year for Rangers. He eventually become part of the
team that got to the UEFA Cup Final in 2008. Around 2009 he found himself
falling out of favour at the club, and spent the second half of the 08/09
season at Blackpool, his first taste of football in England. A highlight that
second half season was a goal he scored against Accrington Stanley reserves
from the halfway line. He joined them permanently at the end of that season,
and not long won the captains armband with the club. He was named in the PFA
Championship Team of the Year, before leading the team to playoff victory, also
scoring from a freekick.

He spent his first season in the Premier League last season,
scoring 13 goals in total, not bad for a team that eventually got relegated.
Liverpool attempted to sign Adam back in January but the bid was rejected. Adam
handed in a transfer request which was also rejected. His fantastic
contribution last season for Blackpool got him nominated for a PFA Player of
the Year award. We then signed him a few weeks ago, and he was given the #26
shirt, a shirt he often chooses as it’s the birthdate of his child. Jay
Spearing was wearing the shirt at the time and let Adam have it (Spearing has
since now starting wearing the #20 shirt).
Charlie Adam has been often compared to Xabi Alonso, due to his
fantastic range of passing ability and also his fantastic accuracy from the
penalty spot. Many Liverpool fans see him as Alonso’s long term successor,
hopefully forming a nice partnership with Gerrard in the middle of the pitch.
However, Adam’s Scotland career has had mixed results, he is yet to score for
the team and isn’t often chosen. If his career continues to excel at Liverpool,
it’ll be difficult for him not to be chosen on a regular basis for country.

Doni

In the early part of the year, John Henry talked of us
signing younger players on a long term basis. Naturally Doni, being 31, doesn’t
fit that bell. However with Pepe Reina at 307 appearances and counting, it’s
not going to be easy to knock the Spanish stopper off his perch as Liverpool’s
goalie. Last season we signed Brad Jones, who’s in his late twenties,
however Doni, gives us great experience between the sticks, having won multiple
cups at Roma, and also is a Copa America winner.

Doni, born Doniéber Alexander Marangon, is an experienced
and dependable Brazilian goalkeeper. He doesn’t often make mistakes, and
enjoyed a good few seasons at Corinthians, before ending up in Roma in 2005. He
was initially bought as an understudy to Gianluca Curci and was only used in
UEFA Cup games but after impressing in that competition, he took over as the
main keeper for Roma. A few years later he was in a three-way battle for the
keeper’s jersey with Artur and Julio Sergio, after he let in 4 goals against
Juventus. The end of his career at Roma ended badly as he wasn’t even on the
bench for most of it. He signed for us on a free transfer and is likely to be
the understudy for Reina, where as one or two of our goalkeepers are likely to
go on loan for more experience.

Stewart DowningUnless you're not familiar with the Premier League and/or the England national team, you'll already know more than enough about Downing. Born in Middlesbrough, Downing went through the youth ranks all the way to the first team. A natural left winger, he tried and failed to establish himself in the first team before going on loan to Sunderland, then in the first division. An injury crisis at the Boro was what made him find himself in the first team long term. In the 2004/05 season he really started to find himself becoming an integral part of the Middlesbrough first team, when scored six goals and starting using his great left foot to cross the ball and provide many assists. One of his best games for the Boro was in a UEFA cup game against Steaua Bucharest in the semi finals when he assisted three of the four goals scored. It was around this time he started to rack up appearances for England, he took part in the World Cup in 2006, mainly as a back up for now team-mate Joe Cole. He also started to take part in the Euro qualifiers, in Steve McClaren's torrid tenure as England manager, Downing became one of the scapegoats due to his attachment to McClaren at the Boro beforehand. In the 2008/09 season, Middlesbrough got relegated. It was a particular poor season for Downing too, as he looked the frustrated figure with the poor run of results that were occurring around him. He handed in a transfer request in the spring, which got rejected. At the end of that season, Downing was sold to Aston Villa.

Things started to turn round for Stewart Downing at Villa, he started to find the form that he found in his first few years in the first team at the Boro, racking up assists and a handful of goals. You could argue that last season at Villa, where he scored eight goals, was his best season yet. Now 27, arguably the peak age for a footballer, he has now joined Liverpool to face competition with Maxi Rodriguez, Milan Jovanovic and Joe Cole for the left wing berth.

--

So what of these four players? Well signing two central midfielders is intriguing. Adam and Henderson above, now join Raul Meireles, Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole, Jay
Spearing, Lucas Leiva, Christian Poulsen, Jonjo Shelvey and Alberto Aquilani,
which total in NINE players all vying for two (or three) positions.While Joe Cole usually plays on the left for us (so can Meireles, and Gerrard can play left and right), he always maintains he wants to be in the middle. Something has to give. Nine players for two positions is quite frankly ridiculous. We need to sell some. But who? For me, Christian Poulsen by default gets sold. Not only is he 31 years old, he had a very poor debut season last year. He just didn't seem to gel with the team, and he didn't perform to the standard a Liverpool player should. But that leaves eight players, eight players quite frankly, I actually like. I can't say a bad thing really about any of the eight players who would then be left at the club. I mean yeah, Joe Cole had a disappointing campaign, but he was also injured a lot and didn't really get the best of opportunities. He can also as I said earlier, play on the left wing. I like him a lot. I always have. I want him to desperately be a success here. I think he deserves one more season. In honesty, if I were manager, I'd probably loan Jonjo Shelvey out to an ambitious team in the Championship, like Nottingham Forest or Cardiff, so he can get a good amount of experience in a decent quality side where he can shine. I think a season in the Championship will do him the world of good, he has bags of potential at the age of 19, and I reckon he could rack up at least half a dozen goals somewhere in that league if given the chance. It still leaves seven players though! It's really difficult, and while I have no problem with us signing Charlie Adam, who I think could be an incredible player for us at a decent transfer fee of around £9 million, or Jordan Henderson, who at 21 could be one of the best English midfielders of the next decade (I do think £15-20 million is a bit excessive though). But it does leave major question marks over the nine midfielders. Aquilani seems destined to go back on loan in Italy, which disappoints me as I think he has something to prove here at Liverpool, and deserves another chance. If he's going back on loan, why don't we just sell him? I've never understood the logic of loaning an established player presumably just to wind his contract down.

As for the other signings I think we've signed Stewart Downing at the right time. He had a great season last year for the Villa, and his crosses are imperative for Andy Carrol to head the ball into the back of the net. There are a few question marks over his consistency, but I think he answered those critics last season when he was one of Villa's best players. If he brings that form to the Reds, we have a very good left winger, who gives us a different option to the free-scoring Maxi Rodriguezz of the end of last season. For Doni, I thoroughly welcome him. He was a very good keeper at Roma, and has been the understudy for the Italian side and for Brazil in the past. I think he's a better keeper than Brad Jones, and I don't see where Jones fits in next season. That being said we have Péter Gulácsi on loan to Hull, so he's pretty much trying to make sure he's ahead of Doni for the backup shirt.

So what happens now? Well we need to sell more players, it's as simple as that. There are rumours of Aquilani, Lucas and Cole all being sold or loaned out. I like all three players, and they all offer us something different. But Kenny can't have nine central midfielders. I trust he'll sell or loan the right players, and make us as strong for next season as possible. It's definitely salivating stuff though, to have so many options for the midfield. We just need another backup striker and a left back now! Sell the right midfielders Kenny, and get some more depth in our squad.

What are your thoughts? Who should Kenny sell? Should we put out established players on loan? Comment below. Thanks for reading.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Hey everyone, after six months of non-stop music writing I bet you all forgot I'm a wrestling fan! But seriously though, anyone who watched the Money in the Bank pay-per-view on last Sunday saw one of the most amazing wrestling programs in a long time. I wanted to write about this earlier last week but I had to finish of my commitment to the Noughtie series.

I've been a fan of wrestling for around ten years now, and I honestly can't say I've seen a better pay-per-view from start to finish. The work put into that PPV, from the top, Vince McMahon and Triple H, John Laurinaitis, to the booking of anyone else involved in that side of things, and most importantly, the wrestlers. Everyone gave their all on last Sunday, and while some people were limited (Mark Henry, Kelly Kelly), they still put their all into it and produced a memorable night of wrestling/sports entertainment. Now I'm not going to place it in any list of amazing PPVs in the history of this business, for the moment I'm a bit fed up of listings, I'm here to talk about CM Punk, and the history he made on last Sunday night.

I found this picture on a Google search, I don't know if it's legitimate.

Now, I'm going to set something straight here. I'm not going to just kiss CM Punks ass in this article for a couple of thousand words. I want to put a perspective on the guy, one that you may or may not have thought of. It is my opinion that on Sunday, CM Punk became what I call a legitimate world champion. What, he's won the title four times right? He was already one before hand Johnny Mercyside! Not in my eyes he wasn't. Now before you scroll down to the bottom of the page and rip me in the comments section, hear me out.

CM Punk is now a four-time champion, a six time if you include his reigns as WWECW and ROH champion. Now, I'm going to piss off a lot of the Internet Wrestling Community off by disregarding the ROH title reign straight away. Like it or not, and the same applies to TNA, WWE is the top. It is the crème de la crème. I'm not saying that the people in the WWE are the most gifted wrestlers in the world. I'd be a fool to suggest that. You have AJ Styles, Daniels, Samoa Joe, Shelton Benjamin, Jack Evans, Low Ki, Charlie Haas and Austin Aries who are all phenomenal athletes in different ways and don't currently work for WWE. But…. TNA is not on par with WWE now. It just isn't the same as the nineties wars. I'm sorry TNA fans. There were legitimate world champions in WCW. The only person in TNA I can possibly name in the same bracket is possibly AJ Styles. He has become a magnificent diamond in the centre of TNA, and has definitely contributed to the growth of TNA worldwide in a major way. But it takes more than natural talent to become a legitimate world champion. Or at least in my eyes you do.

Hulk Hogan. Randy Savage. Ric Flair. The Undertaker. Sting. Bret Hart. Shawn Michaels. Steve Austin. The Rock. Goldberg. Triple H. Kurt Angle. John Cena. Edge. Randy Orton. Batista. There's a lot more, definitely before the wrestling boom of the eighties, but that covers a good portion of the recent ones. I'd say all the names above are legitimate world champions. There are many, many, people not on the list that are more talented. Hulk Hogan's Leg Drop isn't the deadliest finisher in the world. John Cena's moveset does feel limited sometimes. Goldberg made a career of destroying other's careers for his own selfish motives in WCW. But all the people above, can all say they contributed to the gain of the WWE, or WCW in Sting's case, and a few others who had greater success there. They brought in a new audience, and the people that were already watching were licking their lips in awe.

Just in case you still don't understand what I'm getting at here, the names above can all turn heads in wrestling. They can get fans attention. They can, as Eric Bischoff puts it, put asses in seats. They draw fans to the product. And as flashy as some of the smaller named guys are, and seriously, I genuinely love some of those guys, they aren't going to do that all the time. They aren't the 'diamond'. Hulk Hogan is arguably the reason wrestling is on the map today, combined with Vince McMahon's vision; they are both responsible for the way things have evolved for the past thirty years. And yes, Hogan has become a stupid senile man who is tarnishing his legacy in TNA. But in the eighties, before I was born, it was all different. Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan had epic battles. It was the in ring storyline, combined with the out of the ring storyline, that created one of the best feuds of all time. I could easily name big 'moments' for all the above wrestlers, but it should be common knowledge and if you want to know their history, look it up.

There are names that are omitted from that list. One is Eddie Guerrero. A fantabulous wrestler. An amazing talent on the mic. But... did he really contribute a great deal for the WWE? Yes, I am talking about financial gain, but there is more than that too. There's the longevity, there's the consistency, there's face value, there's the dependency. That last one is arguably the most important. Eddie only won the title once remember. And can you argue they could trust their product with Eddie Guerrero? Did he have a long and luxurious title reign? I can’t say they felt they could trust him. Rest in peace dude. The same can be said about Chris Benoit. I don't think the company got to the point where they can make the guy their 'face' guy. And then he did what he did... and the rest doesn't need to be brought up.

Okay, let's try a current wrestler - Rey Mysterio. I don't see Rey in that light either. I love seeing Rey flying in the ring night after night. In the nineties there was genuinely no one like him. And he is a two-time champion. The company booking BOTH his title reigns badly suggests they don't quite like the idea of putting the title on the little man. Rey has made a lot of money for both the WWE and himself with his mask sales, his fantastic fanbase in his home country of Mexico, and his appeal to small children. But can Rey make the company and the wrestling fanbase bow to his feet? I don't think so. And what of Chris Jericho, six time champion? Well, he's my favourite wrestler. But as he really contributed significantly to the growth of the business? He's definitely one of the most all-round gifted athletes, and has helped the careers of many others, but contribute to the growth of the business dramatically? I'm not really sure.

CM Punk is a four-time champion. His three previous title reigns were quite poor. His first one, he beat Edge, and then wasn't book greatly for two months before getting punted by Randy Orton, making him vacate the title. His second and third title reigns are sandwiched between Jeff Hardy's title reign. While the feud was fantastic (best feud of the year) there was no star making moments involved. Jeff did a great Swanton Bomb off the ladder through the announce table, but did anyone's stock rise at all? Did the WWE point at this and go - this is raising people's eyebrows and will gain positive attention? It didn't accelerate interest in the product unfortunately.

And in one month, CM Punk has done just that. Has his contract genuinely run out, or are the rumours true about it actually running out in September? If it's the former, has he signed a new contract? No one knows. His promo from a few weeks back has been hailed as the best promo in ten years. It was a truly flash to a time where promos were often like that, in the Attitude Era. CM Punk was doing what arguably no member of the current roster can do at present, and that is turn heads.

Is it true that CM Punk was asked for interviews with ESPN, and other major sports media outlets? Who knows, but I wouldn't be surprised. Did his stock rise in the past month? In Stone Cold's words, oh hell yeah. And he did it in a way that you can argue is old school, he said controversial things. And it was all in PG. Yes he said ass, yes he said other offensive things. But he didn't swear. He didn't beat Cena until he bled. He cut a fantastically edgy promo, one that had many truths in it. It was a worked shoot. He created this brilliant dilemma for Vince McMahon with the WWE title. He raised major interest in WWE Ice Cream bars being resurrected. He made marks love him, despite being a heel, something that is also difficult to do nowadays. The dilemma he made with the title probably caught the attention of so many people who aren't necessarily regular WWE fans. Punk said, "ESPN and Kimmel are ringing my phone off the hook for a story". He was probably telling the truth. I bet so many people caught wind of what happened, people who aren't major wrestling fans, and wanted to know what the hell was going to go down on Sunday. I really want to know what the buyrate was for MITB.

The funny thing is, most importantly, CM Punk has single handedly made the WWE title important again, something that hasn't been done in such a long time. Him taking the title out of the WWE has made for some fantastic television. 'What is this rebel going to do next?', people will question. I hope Raw views go up. If it does, CM Punk is responsible for that. And bringing the title to Comic Con, and then to an indy show, is really selling the idea that he is unemployed, and is acting on behalf of WWE. Of course I don’t know for sure, but based on the evidence provided in the past month, you’d assume he has signed that contract.

CM Punk has finally become a legitimate world champion. In a nutshell, the fact that CM Punk can draw makes him a legitimate world champion. There were question marks over his ability to draw, there were question marks over his ability to be a star in WWE, despite his great natural talent. He has been bitching about not getting the opportunity of showing what he is capable of when given the spotlight, and rightfully so. The WWE gave him the torch, and he set fire to the WWE. Look how it's paid off. CM Punk is the crown jewel in the hottest wrestling angle for years. The moments that are currently taking place on our screens in the last few weeks will live in the memory. Austin 3:16 Promo. Hulk slamming Andre. Montreal Screwjob. DX invading WCW. And now, the fantastic promos. The brilliant wrestling match with John Cena. The kick to Alberto Del Rio. The kiss to Vince McMahon on the ramp. Running through the Chicago home crowd, stealing the title. Yes, CM Punk taking the title from right under Vince McMahon's nose will be remembered as an OMG moment in the history of this wrestling business.

Do you agree with me? Disagree? Am I being
too harsh on TNA and ROH? How about the other wrestlers I didn't include in the
list? Let me know what you think of this article below. Thanks for reading.

Just as a for your information, this is the 100th official post on this blog. Here's to one hundred more!

We're finally here. The last post to do with this listing. This is just a page full of interesting facts and stats to do with the 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade listing, what media had multiple songs appear in its soundtrack and/or background music. Also, the awards and other reputable listings that had multiple songs in it appear too. Also, it shows what artists and albums had multiple entries. There's probably more but let's just get into it. Enjoy.

Here’s a list of
other sourced lists with multiple listing entries. To avoid confusion, the
number with the '#' sign is where it got to on my listing, and the number in
the (bracket) is where it got to in the listing specified. The golden font are
songs that got to #1 on their respective lists.

The only artist with three songs by the same artist on the same album is Green Day. Their album, American Idiot, featured the songs at #50 - Wake Me Up When September Ends, #44 - Boulevard of Broken Dreams and #1 - American Idiot.

(The caps for this Mixtape are one song per artist, and at least one song from each year will be chosen. If you're not familiar with my Mixtapes, look at the bottom of this website and click on the 'mixtape' tab to see the more Mixtapes, and to get a feel of what they're about.)

...and that's the end! Of the Noughtie Series! Officially! Finally! Thank you so much for taking part in this, regardless of how you got here, and how much you've actually read. One more stat before we go, the total Noughtie listing - from the first post on Wednesday, 26th January to today, 23rd July, the Noughtie Series is a grand total of 72, 041 words long. I've dedicated 6 months to put it all down on the internet, and around 18 months of getting the idea into my head, juggling ideas, doing research, and then actually creating everything. That's a very long time. I think it was worth it. I hope you agree. I'll be back in a few days when everything will be back to normal on this site, and I may keep away from discussing music for a little while anyway! Thanks again for your time and take care.